North Korea’s state-run news, the Korean Central News Agency, is one of the few places for what passes for news in the so-called Hermit Kingdom. Every day, the KCNA posts its top stories, and much of it is predictable: harsh invective against South Korea and its “imperialist” backers in the United States, mixed in with effusive praise of leader Kim Jong Un and the previous Kims. (The younger Kim’s recent “discomfort”—thought to be gout—is conspicuously absent from its coverage.) This is an example of what’s considered front-page news:

The KCNA’s tone is singularly weird: an odd mix of stiffly-worded propaganda and attempts at hard-hitting, American-style political rhetoric. In its mission to portray North Korea as a prosperous, powerful, and widely-admired nation, the KCNA struggles mightily to write clickworthy headlines . Here are some of its best attempts from Juche 103 (that’s 2014 in the North Korean calendar):

Looking for news you can trust?

DOES IT FEEL LIKE POLITICS IS AT A BREAKING POINT?

It sure feels that way to me, and here at Mother Jones, we’ve been thinking a lot about what journalism needs to do differently, and how we can have the biggest impact.

We kept coming back to one word: corruption. Democracy and the rule of law being undermined by those with wealth and power for their own gain. So we're launching an ambitious Mother Jones Corruption Project to do deep, time-intensive reporting on systemic corruption, and asking the MoJo community to help crowdfund it.

We aim to hire, build a team, and give them the time and space needed to understand how we got here and how we might get out. We want to dig into the forces and decisions that have allowed massive conflicts of interest, influence peddling, and win-at-all-costs politics to flourish.

It's unlike anything we've done, and we have seed funding to get started, but we're looking to raise $500,000 from readers by July when we'll be making key budgeting decisions—and the more resources we have by then, the deeper we can dig. If our plan sounds good to you, please help kickstart it with a tax-deductible donation today.

Thanks for reading—whether or not you can pitch in today, or ever, I'm glad you're with us.

We Noticed You Have An Ad Blocker On.

ONE QUICK THING:
Did you see that Mother Jones is launching a new Corruption Project? Check it out, and if our plan makes sense to you, we hope you'll help us raise $500,000 and go all in.

ONE QUICK THING:
Did you see that Mother Jones is launching a new Corruption Project? Check it out, and if our plan makes sense to you, we hope you'll help us raise $500,000 and go all in.

THE MOTHER JONES CORRUPTION PROJECT
We're crowdfunding to hire and build a new beat focused on systemic corruption—investigating how democracy and the rule of law are being undermined by those with wealth and power. Read why we believe this is what the moment demands, and please help fund it with a tax-deductible donation today.

THE MOTHER JONES CORRUPTION PROJECT
We're crowdfunding to hire and build a new beat focused on systemic corruption—investigating how democracy is being undermined by those with wealth and power. Read more, and please help fund it with a tax-deductible donation today.